LAHORE: The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has decided to launch an operation against those using water, sewerage and disposal facilities through illegal connections in various parts of the city.

It has also constituted special teams to launch operations in the nine zones (Town Municipal Administrations) to trace illegal domestic and commercial water and sewerage connections, impose penalties and cut or regularise these connections under the rules, Dawn has learnt.

“Actually no data confirming the exact number of illegal water and sewerage connections is available with Wasa as it is a routine duty of the field formations to keep searching or checking such connections on a daily basis,” Wasa Director Recovery Imtiaz Ghauri told Dawn on Tuesday.

“But we assume that there are around 25,000 illegal connections in Wasa’s controlled area which covers a huge population with around 700,000 regular connections,” he added.

Wasa operates a huge combined sewerage disposal and water supply system in Lahore. The length of sewerage lines including the tertiary open drains consists of around 3,000km.

Moreover, Wasa is supposed to maintain 76km-long six major drains, namely Shahdara drain, Cantt drain, Sattukatla drain, Upper Chhota Ravi drain, Lower Chotta Ravi drain and Sukh Nehar drain which receive the domestic, commercial and industrial sewage / wastewater from various points and finally drain it in the Ravi river.

The Hudiara drain which is looked after by the irrigation department also carries and disposes of the sewerage water. This drain, over 40 years ago, was a stormwater drain used for irrigation and draining wastewater into the Ravi. It originates in the Indian Punjab, running along the border, enters Pakistan and passes along the eastern suburbs of Lahore (Raiwind) before ending up in the Ravi.

“With the passage of time, a number of new housing schemes were developed in Lahore. Similarly, several urban chunks of land were converted into commercial activities, causing increase in number of buildings, plazas, shopping malls, offices etc. But in various cases, it was revealed that some of them were unlawfully involved in using the Wasa system with old domestic connections,” Wasa Director (Jubilee Town) Muhammad Latif explained while speaking to Dawn.

He said, under the law, such connections should have been converted into major commercial connections which have separate tariff. Similarly, there are some people who, either in connivance with the Wasa field officials or own their own, use the Wasa system through illegal connections.

“So the operation against such consumers is the need of the hour and it should be continued on a daily basis,” he added.

WASA MD Ghufran Ahmad said though the action against illegal connections was already underway, a major operation was being launched to crackdown on such consumers. Wasa had also launched monsoon operation by setting up field offices /camps.

“The work related to desilting of all drains has also been accelerated,” he said, adding that the system for having new water / sewerage connection had been simplified as anyone seeking such a facility may just dial 03341334412 to get this facility.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2022